This invention relates to exercise equipment and more specifically relates to exercise equipment that simulates the action of a bicycle but is stationary.
Several types of exercise equipment are currently in use to provide exercise to persons who wish to keep physically fit without venturing out of doors. One of the most popular of the exercise devices has been the stationary exercise bicycle. Early exercise bicycles were very much like real bicyles, except mounted on stands that prevented the wheels from contacting the ground so that the pedaling of the bicycle turned the wheel but did not propel the bicycle. More sophisticated bicycle-simulating equipment has been developed through the years until the exercise bicycles of today, which sometimes do not even resemble standard bicycles and consist primarily of bicycle cranks driven by the feet of the exerciser and drivingly coupled, usually by a chain drive, to a flywheel to provide resistance to the pedal motion, thereby providing the exerciser with a force to work against. Both the appearance and the functional features of exercise bicycles are continuously undergoing change and improvement, however, the typical exercise bicycle still utilizes some sort of a chain-driven wheel, whether it be a lightweight spoked wheel of the true bicycle type or a heavier flywheel, that rotates in a vertical plane about an axis parallel to the axis about which the pedals are moved.